Boys & Girls Town of Missouri’s St. Louis Center, located in a beautiful historic area of the Central West End, opened as a residential facility for youth in 1988.

Formerly a Catholic convent, the remodeled building now serves as a residence for 12 boys along with offices for outpatient therapy, community treatment home and foster care case management programs and the agency’s development departments.

Boys & Girls Town of Missouri - St. Louis Center offers a variety of treatment programs.

Residential Treatment Program
The children residing at Boys & Girls Town St. Louis Center attend public school during the day. When possible they return home on weekends or spend time with relatives or other approved adults. The treatment approach assists residents in learning constructive problem solving and communication skills and focuses on change through the development of respectful interpersonal relationships. Services offered include individual, group and family therapy, recreation therapy, tutoring, psychiatric assessments and evaluations, medical services and 24-hour supervision.

Community Treatment Home Program
The Community Treatment Home Program provides children with a safe, structured therapeutic home setting with licensed behavioral foster parents. All foster parents in this program have received specialized training to prepare them to deal with the challenges that many children bring from their past. The Community Treatment Home Program is appropriate for children ready to step down from residential care or for children who need more structure than available in a traditional foster home. Boys & Girls Town provides case management services to coordinate a strength-based approach for each child and minimize placement disruption.

Foster Care Case Management
Boys & Girls Town is part of the Missouri Alliance Permanency Partnership and provides case management services for children requiring out of home care and works in conjunction with other private agencies to find placement for children in custody of Missouri Department of Social Services Children’s Division for St. Louis City, St. Louis County, and Jefferson County. Case managers meet face to face with the child, parent/guardian and the child’s out of home care provider to ensure services are tailored to meet the needs of the child and family. Through intensive service provision, interventions are designed to assist the child in reaching a timely permanent living arrangement such as: reunification with family, adoption or guardianship.

Fostering Futures
Fostering Futures helps foster parents enhance their parenting skills.  The goal of Fostering Futures is to decrease the number of foster home placements experienced by children in foster care who struggle with emotional and behavior problems and keep them from entering residential care or living on the streets.  Weekly connections allow behavior specialists to provide guidance, support and crisis intervention to foster parents and children in their care. The knowledge foster parents gain from these interactions is used to improve the home environment for the children currently in foster care and those who will be placed in the home in the future.

Admissions Information
Admission into one of Boys & Girls Town’s programs is fast, confidential and focused on addressing the needs of the child and family.

Children are referred by the Missouri Alliance for Children and Families, Department of Social Services Children’s Division, Department of Mental Health, the court system, insurance and managed care companies, employee assistance professionals, parents or other guardians. Referrals may come from any state. Children placed at St. Louis Center must meet basic admissions criteria: male, age 12-17, availability of bed space, a current diagnosis and the family’s ability to pay through either public or private sources.

Common diagnostic characteristics include: attention deficit disorder, anti-social behavior, bi-polar disorder, conduct disorder, depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and oppositional defiant disorder.

These disorders are often exhibited through one or more of the following behavioral problems: inappropriate behavior in school or at home, poor school performance, acts of delinquency, running away, sexually acting out, gang involvement and drug and/or alcohol abuse.

Boys & Girls Town placement experts work with families to identify all available public and private resources to ensure that each child gets the help he or she needs. The cost of treatment programs are covered by most insurance plans.

Most children remain at Boys & Girls Town for six to nine months, although length of stay is evaluated on an individual basis and can be influenced by the policies of the referral source, the child’s behavior, family circumstances and treatment team recommendations.

For information about referrals, please contact the Admissions Department in St. James at (573) 265-3251 or St. Louis Center at (314) 535-7911, ext. 417.

Where do Boys & Girls Town children go?
More than 80 percent of the youth leaving Boys & Girls Town residential care in 2007 returned to live with a parent or family member, or transitioned into foster care or independent living services. Others remained in residential care or moved to more restrictive environments such as hospitals.

How You Can Help
The success of Boys & Girls Town’s treatment of young people is a tribute to the generous support of the St. Louis community and friends throughout Missouri. Those interested in helping these young people succeed may provide financial support to help maintain and develop programs, serve as a mentor and provide employment opportunities. Individuals, companies and civic groups interested in volunteering time and talent are welcome.

Boys & Girls Town of Missouri - St. Louis Center
4485 Westminster Place
St. Louis, MO 63108
Phone: (314) 535-7911, ext. 418
Fax: (314) 535-6632
www.bgtm.org